Can Bezos turn a profit at Washington Post?

The sale of The Washington Post could be a turning point for its parent company and result in a lack of profits for new owner Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Brad Safalow of PAA Research.

The sale of The Washington Post could mean a turning point for its parent company and a lack of profits for new owner Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Brad Safalow of PAA Research said Monday.

"Where the stock is trading now is kind of where I see it on a sum-of-the-parts basis," Safalow said. "However, what we have now is kind of a seminal event in the history of the company. There were a lot of people who advocated breaking this company up into its individual components for long time, and near views on what the residual asset value could be worth, especially in this environment, could be higher than what I've laid out here as a sum-of-the-parts value."

"These recent acquisitions might suggest that the company is now going to be looking across a variety of verticals to allocate capital and ideally improve returns for shareholders," he said.

As for whether Bezos could turn the Post into a profitable business, Safalow said that might not be the Amazon.com founder's immediate goal.

"Without getting too specific about his managing capabilities, he certainly has a history of running companies at low levels of profitability," he added. "I don't think profits in this case are necessarily his primary motivation in the short-term. Will he figure something out? It is a strong brand."